Hello and thank you for listening to the history of World War II podcast episode 474 Kiev is

trapped last time per Hitler's orders general Guderian's pan Group 2, began racing south, to be the northern half of a

pincer east of Kiev that would cut off the city from any help and seal its fate. But first, the Pansas of Gudarian had to get into place. They moved

quickly pushing aside unorganized Soviet resistance until only after two days of travel, they reached the Desna River, which here was

flowing west to east. The engineers quickly threw up pontoon bridges, but considering the amount

of pander is about to cross, a larger, more stable

bridge was preferred.

And General Walter Modal and his third pancer division found such a wooden bridge at Navgarad Seveski about 100 miles or 160 kilometers northeast of Kiev.

Problem was, it was already rigged to blow.

This long bridge already had a 500 pound bomb placed at its center by the defenders.

Also, they attached explosives that were hanging off the sides and had gasoline drums underneath ready to ignite.

Clearly, speed was the order of the day if the bridge was to be taken intact. Fortunately for the attackers they had speed and

spades. At 6 a.m. the attack started leaving the way were Zundap K-S 750 motorcycles.

Made for rough terrain, they also had a side car which held an

M. G-34 machine gun.

As they approached the bridge, the machine guns started firing, forcing the defenders

on and behind the bridge to duck for cover. Behind the motorcycles were SDKFZK.F. Z. 2.5 tracks. And within these were

panser grenadiers ready to jump out and attack. With them were

engineers ready to neutralize the explosives or incendiarys.

As the German motorcycles mounted the first part of the bridge, their leading elements fell,

dead or wounded as the Soviets fired back. But just then the smoke bombs shot by German artillery

onto the bridge started sending out plumes of blinding smoke. The hat tracks stopped at the edge of the bridge, the troops

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